South Asian and Chinese immigration show political favouritism and a lack of real diversity.

OTTAWA – For the first time in Canada's history, visible minorities have surpassed the five million mark as a new wave of immigrants from Asia is changing the face of Canada at a staggering rate, according to new census data released Wednesday by Statistics Canada.

Visible minorities now comprise more than 16 per cent of the total population as their number skyrocketed by 27 per cent between 2001 and 2006, more than five times the previous increase of 5.4 per cent.

The sharp growth in the visible minority population was largely due to the fact that three-quarters of new immigrants to Canada since 2001 were visible minorities, analysts said.

South Asians, those who hail from such countries as India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, now slightly outnumber the Chinese, who were identified as the top visible minority group in 2001, the last time the census was taken.

Nearly 1.3 million people identified themselves as South Asian in the 2006 census – a 38 per cent jump over 2001.

South Asians now account for a quarter of all visible minorities in Canada, or four per cent of the total population. Those with roots in China comprise about another quarter of the country's visible minority population, with some 1.2 million identifying themselves as Chinese.

So half of the visible minority population in Canada is either South Asian or Chinese. That's quite an accomplishment in such a short time for countries who immigration to Canada didn't really start until the mid 1970s and later.

India is Canada's top source country for immigrants as of 2007. Before that it was China. Landed South Asian immigrants (which includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka) now outnumber landed Chinese immigrants. The question I ask is why are there so many South Asian and Chinese immigrants in Canada in the first place? If Canada's points system for immigration is colour neutral in practice then why does it seem to benefit immigrants from some countries more so than immigrants from others? Why is the face of diversity in multicultural Toronto usually flooded with South Asian and Chinese faces. Where are the others? You'd figure there would be a broad spectrum of immigrants coming into Canada but in reality that is not the case. The vast majority of immigrants to Canada today come from one region of the world: Asia.

Though Canadian immigration gives the appearance of a colour blind entry system in reality that is not true becuase the points system is not applied equally to all regions and countries. The points system may be colour neutral but it is not politically neutral and has been manipulated to favour immigrants from certain countries. Canada's immigration system once favoured European immigration but now it favours South Asian and Chinese immigration and the result is the same: colonization.

29 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Another question that needs an answer...does that South Asian/Chinese "political favouritism" extend to coveted jobs in our immigration department?

Personally, I'd like to see the breakdown results of all federal employees defined by race and birth country who are employed at Immigration Canada. Then compare those employee proportionate rates to the the racial statistics just released by StatsCanada.

If the Canada Border Services Agency is any indication of out-of-proportionate visible-minorities working at federal airports, what might the immigration-employee figures show?

How do we justify hiring recent immigrants to work in the immigration department from where these people just passed through themselves? These are not the types of jobs that Canadian-born citizens refuse to take. So what gives? Need I mention the "fox in the hen-house" scenario? A couple of years ago, a high ranking "British" immigration officer originally from Africa was discovered to be an illegal immigrant himself! Our own made-in-Canada example of incompetence hasn't turn up yet....but he's out there.

"Employment-equity" policies are put into practice where innumerable White Canadians, especially white men, are simply denied jobs due to the colour of their skin. For the past several years, thousands of qualified Canadian-born white applicants have been victims in this despicable practice, especially government jobs and agencies like police forces.

Our once-respected federal police force (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) even had a quiet “no white males” policy” though many applicants were fully qualified. Although qualified, they still had to score 33% higher than visible minorities on aptitude tests to be accepted. This only tells me, we must have hired a lot of dumb NON-white cops who couldn't compete on a level playing field. Then I look at the recent calibre of some Toronto cops and wonder "how in hell did they get the job"? Oh... a double 'E' racial hire...well, of course!

There seems to be a conflict of interest when former immigrants are placed in positions where they can decide the entry of other immigrants especially those from their homelands. However I will concede that it doesn't necessarily mean that they will be biased in all cases. In fact a former immigrant who acts impartially in the immigration department may be the best situation because he or she can escape accusations of racism. But of course there is no guarantee that he or she will act in the best interests of Canada choosing instead to safe guard the easy passageway of their own people into Canada.

Hiring quotas are unjust and racist. Isn't it funny how some immigrants oppose immigration quotas but support hiring quotas. This is a means to gain an advantage in the competitive job market masked in the language of equality. However it is cloaked it translates into white Canadians, particularly white males, being discriminated against in the job market based on race. Yes it is racist.

According to Wikianswers the percentage of the world's share of white people is only 8% in comparison to 92% NON-white!

Exactly what I have been saying. Whites are a minority in a global sense but form majorities in a few countries so what is accomplished by making whites minorities in those few countries as well? I don't see the rationale.

Why are South Asians grouped together while Chinese get their own designation? If we were to break South Asians down into Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi, then Chinese will outnumber.

Why we group South Asians into a singular group and not the Chinese is not pertinent to my point. Canada's immigration system displays favouritism to immigrants from one region of the world, in this case Asia. This is due to political decisions made in Ottawa and elsewhere and it has little, if anything, to do with some natural shift in immigration patterns. This can be achieved by placing less emphasis on European immigration and increasing emphasis on Asian immigration. In the related post I added to the thread the Liberals opened a consulate, the only western one, in an area of the Punjab to reward Sikh voters. Canada could just as easily adopt an immigration policy that favours Europeans, which I believe it should, however we can see how it will be viewed as racist. I counter it is just as racist to emphasize non-white immigration just because it is non-white immigration. There is no reason for Canada to be accepting so many immigrants from South Asia and China but we do and that's because it was decided that Canada should.

"There seems to be a conflict of interest when former immigrants are placed in positions where they can decide the entry of other immigrants especially those from their homelands."

Good point. Here in Australia, the top Immigration Department bureaucrat is himself an immigrant - an Indian-born Muslim to be precise. Unsurprisingly, his tenure has been marked by a significant increase in Indian and other Asian immigration to Australia. Given that most non-European immigrant minorities tend to be fiercely ethnocentric, I don't doubt that some ethnic bias has crept into the increasingly minority-staffed ranks of the Immigration Department.

Just another infuriating example of how an immigration program originally devised to serve the nation has been turned on its head. Now, it appears, it is the nation that exists to serve the immigrants.

" In the case of family class immigration, Punjab continues to exercise a strong influence, accounting for 80 percent of all applications in 1998, but it drops to just over 55 percent for all classes. (4) These differences highlight the need to interpret immigration from India by the type of immigration channel used: refugee, skilled worker, business or family class.

Refugee class: Little scholarly work explicitly focuses on Indian refugees and their settlement experiences in Canada. Recorded refugee numbers from India in the 1980s and 1990s exceeded 1,000 only in 1996, when 1,241 were admitted. (5) Refugees from India at this time were primarily interpreted as escaping the violent unrest linked to the politics of Khalistan and Sikh separatism, which saw the Indian military storm the Golden Temple of Amritsar, the holiest of Sikh places, in 1984. Following this event, Sikh bodyguards assassinated President Indira Gandhi, and the public retaliated by attacking and murdering Sikhs in violent riots across the country, especially in Delhi. One of the most famous Indian refugee incidents in Canada around this time was the arrival in 1987 of the Amelie off the coast of Nova Scotia with 174 Sikhs onboard. The Conservative government in power at the time used the incident to justify tightening immigration and refugee regulations, which received opposition from numerous groups (Knowles 1997, 180). A number of those aboard the ship, however, were granted refugee status and settled in the larger urban centres, where Indo-Canadian communities were well established. During the height of the Punjab troubles in the mid-1980s it was suspected by the Indian consul in Vancouver that 15 to 20 percent of all Indian immigration to Canada was undocumented (quoted in Unna 1985, 30). It has also been suggested that the influx of these Sikhs, who were primarily young, into the established Sikh Canadian community caused some tension, especially with reference to how the Sikh religion was practiced (Unna 1985).

Skilled-worker class: The skilled-worker category contains those immigrants selected through the points system as outlined in the 1967 immigration policy. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, immigration policy changes had begun to be reflected in the increased numbers of skilled Indian immigrants. Researchers who have traced the evolution of Indian immigration since the late 1960s highlight the religious, geographical and social diversity this changing immigration pattern introduced (Buchignani 1987; Buchignani and Indra 1989; Sharma 1997). This class of immigration from India has been rising steadily in the last decade and is increasingly incorporating individuals from regions other than Punjab, especially Gujarat and Maharasta (CIC office manager, Delhi, interview 17 December 1999). This change in the nature of immigration has been coupled with an increase in the role of immigration consultants. One consultancy based in Chandigarh, with offices in 24 Indian cities and in Mississauga, Ontario, claims to have filed 2,500 applications since 1994, with 3,000 currently in process (Punjab Tribune 2000). Their figures indicate that in 1998, their clients received close to one-quarter of the total visas CIC issued to independent immigrants from India. (6) This suggests that as this class increases, consultants will exercise a powerful influence over the geography of immigrant source and destination.

Business class: Canada's business category includes the self-employed, entrepreneurs and investors. Entrepreneurs are expected to have a net worth over Cdn$300,000, and investors must invest $400,000 in Canada. Unlike immigrant trends from Southeast Asia, business immigration from India has tended to be fairly insignificant. This was due, in part, to the limited convertibility of the Indian rupee, which made it legally impossible for potential Indian business immigrants to transfer the required capital into Canada. Since January 2000, however, this mode of immigration has been positively affected by changes in India's foreign-exchange regulations. (7) Between 1999 and 2000, the number of principal business-class immigrants from India more than doubled, to 122, moving India's ranking as a source region for this class of immigrant from 12 to 7 (CIC 2002). Despite this increase in skilled and professional-class immigration in the last few years, family class still represents almost half of all Indian migration, as Figure 4 indicates.

[FIGURE 4 OMITTED]

Family class: Hugh Johnston (1988) noted that the sponsorship process played a central role in community formation for Canadian Punjabis in Vancouver in the 1970s and 1980s, and this type of immigration is still evident, since India represents the largest source of family-class immigrants to Canada by a significant margin (Table 3). Family-class immigration includes various subcategories: spouses, fiance(e)s, parents (grandparents in the place of no parents), children, orphans and adoptions. Within the family-class category, the most significant components are spouses and parents (see Figure 5). This class of immigration has been the main impetus for immigrant community-building from India, and it provides the mechanism whereby individuals can reconstitute the extended family in one place. The importance of family networks and the common practice of arranged introductions and marriages, as well as the traditional importance of the eldest son in caring for his parents (Hershman 1981), have created a strong social field between the two regions that strengthens the practice of family sponsorship. Such processes are grounded in transnational networks of interaction activated especially during processes of marriage and family sponsorship (Bal 1997)."

If you walk around the area of Brampton know as Springdale in the summertime you see so many Sikhs of senior age you'd think the place is a retirement community and I kid you not.

It is this kind of family reunification that has steadily pushed up the average age of immigrants to around 33 whereas for Canadians in general it is 39 (like a 6 year difference is a lot). Back in the saner days immigrants to Canada were younger.

Although I haven't been in Brampton for several years, I also remember a greater preponderance of gray-bearded, turbaned Sikhs wandering around malls with nothing but time on their hands......in the early 1990s!

One can only imagine the explosion of numbers today.

If I'm not mistaken, the children of these elderly foreigners only need to send them a one-way ticket to Canada before their 55th birthday to be eligible, after 10 yrs. residency, to receive our old-age pension at 65 years old.

While these elderly foreign interlopers who've NOT earned one dollar at any job in our country, they're eligible to feed off our system when our own Canadian-born seniors may have contributed 40-45 years of hard labour. Amazing!

In addition to waiting around shopping malls and taking up space, how many elderly imports were directed to one of our Welfare Offices soon after arrival from the Punjab?

With all this Christian "work ethic" drummed into our heads for generations, I think "we've been had"!!

The main problem with the family reunification stream, a favourite of the Sikh community which is most likely how most Sikhs got into the country, is that it does little to combat Canada's aging population and relatively low birth rate.

Here's an example. A picture was published in the Toronto Star to accompany the paper's first report on the Conservative government's changes to the immigration act. The picture presented a concerned "Canadian" who was a Sikh immigrant from the Punjab region of India. He is accompanied by his wife, who he sponsored, and two children who were either born here or abroad, it actually doesn't matter. So far the picture is fine regarding the population problem because the two children will replace the parents when they die.

However any benefits to the population situation is erased when the Sikh gentleman imported both of his parents. Thus, with one immigrant we have four adults and two children, a negative situation. We can argue that the children will grow up to have kids of their own but StatsCan has shown that immigrant women have the same birth rates as Canadian women. In other words it is likely, though not certain, that the Sikh's children will have the same number of children as the national average illustrating that the low birth rate is due to economic reasons that immigration does not solve.

If the Sikh's wife imports her parents as well then the problem is worsened because now we have six adults to two children. The immigration system, due to the abuse of the family reunification stream, has raised the average age of immigrants to over thirty, has not solved the aging population problem but has made it worse, and has barely affected the birth rate. The immigration system has proven itself a failure in these aspects but we are continuously told we need mass immigration because of it. It's mind boggling but abuse of the family reunification stream is allowed for political reasons even though few benefits for Canada and Canadians are ever realized from it.

While other countries have already figured it out the real benefits of having Asians coming to their countries e.g. Australian, NZ, UK and US; Canada is still so blind to see the societal repercussions. Under the lame Canadian assumption that we welcome everyone, Canada has discarded a good cost/benefit analysis from having a huge Asian population that in most of the cases, will never become blended in our society. STOP ASIAN IMMIGRATION TO CANADA. As a nation with a color blind immigration policy, we should encourage immigration from Africa, the Arab world, Latin America and even Europe.

There are more immigrants coming from China and India is because there are FREAKING 2 billion people there! Whereas the population of South America is a little over 300 million. Its all proportional. Just get over it. The real debate you should be having is how to better integrate new Canadians into our society and emphasize Canadian values to them. But the problem is tangible Canadian values are long gone.

You white people have abandoned all or any traditional values you had in the first place. You guys are self-destructing, just look at your brith rates, it seems westerners have given up having babies. Civilization die by suicide not murder. Rampant sexual promiscuity, homosexuality, divorce rates, and abortion have brought Canada to this point. Now as you child-less Canadians get older you need to import the children you never had to take care of you while you go and have some more protected group sex.

India is a giant, corrupt slum. The Asians we bring in are trying to escape. I could argue that they should stay and try to fix India instead of taking the easy route and coming to Canada to take advantage of our fair, well meaning infrastructure. However, these people will merely turn many Canadian cities into slums, they will overwhelm the welfare system, the health care system and the schools. I have worked with many Indians over the years, and frankly, despite their qualifications, which I doubt the quality off, they were work shy but played the racist card whenever they can.

Immigration policy should be on a percentage basis from each country, ie 50 people from Denmark then 50 people from China. People applying for refugee status because of human rights violations could come under current immigrant policy regulations.

"The signing of today's agreement with British Columbia will support the integration of newcomers, helping to ensure that they're able to contribute to our economy and succeed in Canada."

The Canadian Government will be transferring $114 million to British Columbia for immigration and settlement services and for welcoming communities initiatives.

It is hoped that the immigration agreement will result in more immigration intoto British Columbia and will encourage existing immigrants to say. This will help immigrants integrate and help meet British Columbia's economic and social needs.-----------------------------------

Minister Jason Kenney visited Beijing recently one of the stops during his visit to Asia. He mentioned that China was "…the number one source country for immigrants to Canada…" The immigration minister went onto to say:

"Canada has benefited enormously from immigration from China."There has been a substantial increase in the number of students studying in Canada. There were 50,000 students living in Canada in 2009. This represents an increase in 300% in the number of Chinese students living in Canada in the last ten years. The Canadian immigration minister also had the following to say about Chinese students in Canada:

"We are committed to increasing the number of Chinese students attending Canadian colleges and universities;"

"…and in the course of my visit to Beijing, I made an important announcement about how our government will encourage even more students to study in Canada."

Our politicians are making sure white canadian people will be a visible minority in the near future.

I really would like to see the flow of many from south asia, China and Muslim countries stop. I do not feel happy living amongst these people who steal our jobs and demand welfare, and create crime and thrust their culture and ways upon me.I don't know why these people can't stay in their own countries.I dislike all the benefits they are receiving from tax payers when so many who are here receive so little.So many I see in government jobs in Toronto while the rest of us are without jobs. Also why aren't all those bogus refugees from Sri Lanka being sent back.It seems the minority control and benefit while the majority of white Canadians suffer.

I really would like to see the flow of many from south asia, China and Muslim countries stop.

Chinese come to Canada to take advantage of the country economically. For south Asians western citizenship is fashionable and a sign of status. Muslims want to spread Islam. All of them are motivated by self interest. None of them care to preserve Canada's cultural heritage. Realizing this I have to agree with you. You don't love your spouse when you learn he or she only loves you for your money.

I can't believe what I'm reading on this site. This is a joke. How do we stop this? Our kids are fucked if they have to deal with these people. People comment (assuming their asian) saying whites have no values, asians are the rudest, most arrogant people iv ever come across.

Asian, south asians do not care about canadians, the environment or anything but getting what they can get for free from our government. I agree with halting this type of immigration, and stopping foreign ownership of canadian resources. It's bad enough we stole the land from the aboriginals, now we are selling canadian resources to countries that plainly don't take care of their own people or their environment. Learn about these cultures they are hideous!!!! once you let all these asians and south asians into Canada, it will destroy our society in no time. I've lived among both these "cultures" and they are horrible people to live around. Just because they have too many people because they can't stop pumping out babies, doesn't mean Canadians should suffer.

Asian immigration must stop now. I live in British Columbia.I am Caucasian and a visible minority in my own country. They do not even attempt to adopt our culture. They are draining our resources. Natural and social. I had an accident at work and had a 6 hour wait to be seen in emergency room because there were about 30 Asians in front of me. This invasion must stop before they destroy our culture and country like they have done to their own country. The only people who welcome you are the Asian immigrants before you. You have become a serious burden to our schools, hospitals and overall infrastructure. GET OUT AND STAY OUT

I have a challenge for Canadians. Please go to China, Korea, Iran, Pakistan, Afganistan,Japan and so on. Please tell me what country your in. Now come back to Canada and tell me what country your in. You won't have a clue and that is ashame!!!!!

These comments are sadly true. Brampton has now become a slum, with Sikhs wondering the streets in the middle of day put of a job. I see dozens of old Sikhs riding bikes and relaxing without putting a cent into the economy they're milking dry.

Another problem that has been brought up (and holds true) is the fact tht they don't even try to blend to our culture. Yet, we have to respect theirs?

I agree with all the comments. South Asians are ruining Canada why are they here? They create negative benefit with 20 people in one house, they smell, don't speak English and are extremely lazy. Only one person works on the books barely pays taxes ad then robs the system that now you have to work until you are 67. Seriously the government has allowed these leaches to take over. They are like cockroaches once they are here you can't get rid of them.

Brampton is like the worse Indian slum you can't even go to the park properly. Indians are scum and should be deported back to India to live in squalor maybe then they will realize the benefits Canada has.

Indians are not risk takers. That is why so many take civil service jobs, then, they in turn only hire Indians, excluding the rest of the population. The Europeans that came years ago took risks, built the infrastructure, moved out west etc. These Indians only take existing jobs, use the existing infrastructure etc. and hide behind the chant of racist. I have lived all over the world, in many countries even prostitutes wont do business with Indians because of a combination of hygene and they wont pay. They are a nasty race and Canada, Australia, UK are all learning a hard lesson.

I am actually appalled by seeing the number of racists on this blog (unless they're all the same person)while our society has way surpassed the 19th century. IT IS PLAIN WRONG to accuse a particular RACE of something when there are good and bad people in all races. IT IS NOT THEIR CHOICE TO BE PART OF A VISIBLE MINORITY! On the other hand, RELIGION and CULTURE are CHOICES. You can definitely blame a culture(i.e. Arab/Indian/Italian/Chinese) or religion(i.e. Islam, Sikh) since it is their CHOICE to adopt policies which dilute Canadian Cultureby forming subcultures. There is a HUGE difference between CHOICE and RACE PPL, and that it what I have learned from dealing with thousands of people of visible minorities.Christianity is not a popular religion in Asia. Hence, their policies, tradition, and general behavior were influenced by other religions and philosophies, unlike the western world. From all the immigrants of visible minorities that I have met, I discovered that Christian South Asians are much like Canadians, and were totally different from the stereotypical 'Indian' that you see in Brampton. They easily adopt Canadian Culture since it is similar to theirs.

Asian immigration in the UK has been a disaster. Study after study has found a handful of Asian immigrants making a positive contribution, while the vast majority survive on state benefits. They soak up huge health resources, run many of the scams in the UK especially ones designed to soak up government pensions and handouts, they are responsible for sex crimes in a huge way, in fact Scandanavia is experiencing rape on a scale never heard off in its history because of brown immigrants. However, because these people vote, they migrate quickly to pen pushing government jobs etc. the ability to control immigration from these countries is nil Canada is a doomed country. Dont expect them to respect white, christian values. Try immigrating to India, impossible. They are a very sharp elbowed people and Canada is sliding down the food chain as a result of Trudeaus immigration policies and the current politicians fear of being called racist.